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Well, It was a rustic Pacific Northwest Spring opener as usual. Planning the spring opener is always a gamble. Every year, we have to study the weather and wait as long as possible to decide whether to make a go of it in March or not. The Groundhog in Pennsylvania doesn't usually help us out with the decision. The weather reports can often be wrong this time of year. All we really need is a four-hour window of decent weather to draw out all the hibernating PNW moto-folks. Actually, over the past nine years, we have been extremely lucky in terms of weather. We have only had a few rainy spring openers and maybe one with snow and hail. In the past, we have postponed the date to April a few times. The April option always puts us on or around tax day. Which is a bummer. And then there is the daylight factor. Waiting till April definitely helps with having more time to see. But, everyone is anxious to get their " Spring on ". So in the past, if the weather looks bad, we have made the March Spring Opener an informal and un-official "meet and greet ". That works too , but the next month it might rain again as well. So, all in all, it is hard to win. Or maybe we will either way. Just about now I can hear all of the " soggy bottoms / "I always ride in the rain" people saying," that is what rain gear is for!" ... And now I can hear that guy saying " Rain gear is for wussies!". It doesn't matter where you stand on the matter ..... If you ride out to Backfire and it is too Dark , too rainy , too cold , and too windy to chill out and walk around outside and mix it up with your friends and see the sweet bikes, then it's just not as good. And that is why we try to pick the best date to have the spring Opener. This time we were kind of lucky because we just had inclement weather meaning a few sprinkles and wind in Ballard. But, It was raining all over the area north and south of us. So the turnout was pretty small, but as they say" the people who did show had a great time! ". Below, you will find a few highlight from that evening. ​

Mark showed up early on his 1958 Lambretta.

Doug showed up on his new build. It is a 1978 Suzuki PE175, shopped down to a cafe/flat tracker style. Doug is planning to race it at dirtquake this year! Whoohoo!

​There was definitely enough attendees to have a good time and see some interesting bikes. It was not a 500-600 person turn out like in the Summer, but a good time was had for sure

A beautiful Triton showed up. This is Jacks new ride for the Season. It came from Gloy Motorworks from LA. He is in the process of tweaking it to his own liking.

Jack

Nice BMW side car showed up. ​

​Nice ! Hey, put that down.....haha....

When in doubt, roll up on a classic Cafe Racer! ​

We even got a classic PNW rainbow for the occasion! ​

If you didn't make it to the Spring Opener, this is the shirt from the event. We have plenty of them left, so please drop by the red info. / DJ booth and buy one to help support us. Thanks and see you on Wednesday, April 19th for Backfiremoto# 69. Cheers TW

Usually we post them a few weeks after each event. This set of photos by Todd Werny got lost for a while, but here it is now. If you would like to see more photos from Backfiremoto #64 just click here to go to facebook . ​

Eric and his better half rolling up on his BSA. ​

​A Great example of a local Suzuki Boulevard S40 with Ryca bobber conversion ( minus the Tank) . You don't see a lot of these Ryca bikes here in seattle. The Ryca scrambler , tracker and Cafe racer are worth taking a look at too.

Haha .... Looks like she is taking a nice ride in the Swiss Alps ..... ​

​A nice Motobike showed up ....

Just had to include these two Yamaha 650s that showed up . Beautiful bikes. I am not sure who built them . Great job! ​

Nice Harley Cafe racer . I think this one is owned by a local rock-star. ​

​Well we cant put all the photos up here on the blog but please go to our facebook page to see all the rest from this event soon. Looking forward to getting the pics from Backfiremoto #66 up from last summer too. Expect them next week ... Till then, Cheers T.W.

OriginsEarly Backfire moto Backfiremoto Number 4 November 19th 2008The first few Backfiremoto events were quite small compared to the current turnout of hundreds of bikes each month. This winter has been pretty harsh so far in many ways . Reminiscing about those early events took me back to the first Backfire Winter when we kept it going through December in the snow, wind , rain and icy road conditions. A smaller core of us showed up to huddle around burn barrels to keep warm in the parking lot of “The Station” which is now “The shelter Lounge”. I was wishing that I had some pictures that captured the spirit of the early events when I remembered that a talented photographer and motorcycle enthusiast Darren Beatty had documented Backfire 4 . After searching through our old Myspace account and ancient e-mails , I was able to contact Darren and download the photos from his web site. http://www.darrenbeattyphotography.com/ . This is a great shot Darren took of the smoke of the burn barrel mixing with the people and the bikes. ​​

We don’t do the burn barrel anymore but those days were fun. Actually it melted a hole in The Station’s asphalt parking lot .

Coincidentally , The Shelter Lounge now has a cozy gas fireplace in the same location that we used to have the burn barrels. The following photos are more of Darren Beatty’s photo collection and then a few photos by Todd Werny and a pic of the Poster and the T-shirt from Backfire #4 . If you click on the shirt it will take you to our t-shirt shop if you would like to buy one. ​​

Blonde dynamite !

​We had some nice cafed mopeds show up that night….

Norton

Bultaco

​Thanks again Mr. Beatty for the great shots of a classic moment in Backfiremoto history. Although Backfire is a lot larger now , usually if you stay late at one of the venues you can experience the camaraderie and conversation with other PNW riders who share similar motorcycle interests . Backfiremoto winds down as someone kickstarts their bike on that cold night.

And now a few shots by Todd Werny and a pic of the T-shirt from Backfire#4 and the poster. ​

​Chris hops on his bike….

D-day!

Wonton!

Yours Truly on the left ….

The Duke

Pic of the “Bit Saloon” before it was the “Two Bit “ and now the “Bergstrund”.

Nice walk down memory lane ! See you in the spring! Todd , Sean , and Sean at www.BackfireMoto.com ​